Monday, August 20, 2012

Response to "Creepy Thoughts: Is Horror Dead?"

There are reasons to believe that horror might be dying, but I assure you it isn't. There was a wave of remakes in the early 2000's. Some people say it was because Hollywood ran out of ideas. I tend to believe it was because they could do more with those good or great stories today.

B Jr said, "The horror genre is redefining itself." and "Hollywood is throwing things out there to see what sticks."

It sounds to me like they're running out of ideas, but again, I assure you the horror industry is not dying. People have a built in need to feel scared. It makes them feel like as bad as their life is, it could be worse. Horror is the escape from reality. If Hollywood is running out of ideas, then that will benefit writers like me.

I predict a wave of horror adaptions from books to the big screen. I know a lot of writers who write in the genre. The ideas aren't exactly new, but it's my opinion that a story doesn't have to be original to be a great tale. Most writers strive to be original, but when that fails they just want to tell a good story.

In the 1970's the horror movies were truly born. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Last House on the Left, The Exorcist, and Halloween all broke barriers that hadn't been crossed before. People were horrified in ways that only the print form of horror could do. The horror books began to get more scary in the 70's. Stephen King would get started in that decade, although he would become more recognized in the 1980's.

The 80's brought on icons of the Freddy and Jason, but it brought on a bunch of ridiculous horror too. The industry had exploded. People were buying it trying to find that next great scare. Carrie and The Shining had found box office success, and Stephen King's books became a well they continued to go to for the next best thing. Not every one of them worked out, but more did than didn't.

The 90's found Jason and Freddy used up, just like many other 80's follow-up movies, Halloween H20, The Bride of Chucky, The Amityville Dollhouse. Stephen King adaptions were not making the big screen as much as they were made-for-tv-movies. In fact it was King's non-horror stories that had success in the 90's. The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. The original Scream saved the decade from being a total loss.

The early 2000's were fueled by remakes, and pretty good ones in my opinion. Now though it seems the genre is headed for the next big thing. Whatever that might be, I can assure you horror isn't dead or dying.

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I saw this movie before I read the book, but it was the best adaption of a Stephen King story. This is right there with The Shining and Christine as my all time favorite Stephen King novels. It's just ahead of Pet Semetary for best King adaption. Many of Stephen King's adaptions were not good. In my humble opinion it's about 50-50 good and bad. Stephen King didn't like Kubric's version of The Shining, but I did. It wasn't better than the novel, but it was damn good and scary. This is a must read for fans of any genre.

This wasn't the best Stephen King book I've ever read. In fact it might be the worst, which is saying something because it wasn't very bad. It's just not one I'd highly recommend. I don't feel like I wasted my time, although there were better King books I could have read.

The story line was good, the prose was good, and it had everything a good SK book should have, but it fell short of some of the other awesome books of his that I've read. The story did drag on in places and probably could've been a short story or novella.

I read Christine at 10 years old, and could remember loving it. I had to read it again as an adult, so I read it again in 2002. I have the book in my collection just in the event that I might read it a 3rd time one day. That coming from the guy who doesn't want to read the same book twice.

I had to rate this 5-stars, because this was the best example of storytelling you can find. He twists reality with fiction so well in this story. It made the story seem very real. I never once found myself rooting against the turned antagonist Arnie, or Christine.

Christine is under appreciated, and maybe that's because the movie was a huge success. The movie was great, but it missed something the novel had from a realistic stand point. Reading this novel inspired me to write myself. This book is in my top-3 Stephen King stories.

This was one of the strangest books I've ever had the chance to read. Like a fly in a spiderweb the story has a consuming quality about it. It was somewhat like a puzzle, and King did a great job of pulling it all together. I read Desperation before reading this one, so I thought it was awesome how he used the same characters in in different roles in both books. I give this story 5-stars, because it's tight and right.

This book was what I call good horror. He stayed very close to the Sylvia Likens case. Some readers of the book called it torture porn. Nothing could be further from the truth. The book is very well written, it's horror at its best, and it gets five stars from me. I recommend this book to anyone who likes realistic horror.

From the reviews I read I expected it to be worse. In no way was this torture porn, but it was pretty extreme violence, however still not as over the top as I expected it to be. I liked the story a lot, and immediately began reading The Girl Next Door upon finishing Off Season. Jack has picked up another fan.

This was an awesome look into how a legend goes about the craft. I've applied some of the advice into my own work. Especially the part about the second draft and revising process. If you want to write or are a fan of Stephen King, then don't wait another minute to read this book.